SUBSCRIBE:

Rebutting Rouhani's comment that a person wouldn't be jailed in Iran for being a journalist

Share

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani replies to a question during a news conference in New York on 26 September 2014

REUTERS/Adrees Latif

This article originally appeared on ARTICLE 19's Azad Tribune on 2 October 2014:

By Afsaneh Rigot

This week has been eventful in Iran. With all that has been going on in the tormented realms of written and spoken word, came further indication that the diminishing right to free expression will not be seeing better days.

In an interview with CNN's Christian Amanpour, President Hassan Rouhani gave a short and bizarre response to a question in regards to imprisoned journalists in Iran. After promising to release political prisoners and journalists in his election campaign, Rouhani's tone changed; in the interview his answer was simply that he does not “believe that an individual would be detained or put in prison for being a journalist.”

Journalist Fereshteh Ghazi, along with numerous others who have been monitoring the situation of political prisoners in Iran, responded to Rouhani with a question: “If no journalists jailed in Iran, why did you promise their release?”

For a recent article she wrote, Ghazi visited the families of imprisoned journalists Masoud Bastani, Bahman Ahmadi Amouei and Reyhaneh Tabatabaee to confirm the reason for which their loved ones were imprisoned.

Of course the answer she was given was as expected – they were imprisoned for their journalism. Ghazi notes that Tabatabaee's mother had been just as shocked about Rouhani's obscure comment. Her heart-warming answer in Ghazi's article, in which she still stands by Rouhani, shines a light into the confusing state most have been left in after his statements:

“We certainly expected more from him. I was shocked. Even if he wanted to evade the question, he could have given a more diplomatic answer…. The day they arrested Reyhaneh and took her to prison I told you that the perpetrators wanted to blame Rouhani and weaken him, even though the arrest had nothing to do with him. I stand by my answer and still defend Mr. Rouhani, but I was still shocked and heartbroken to hear his response…. Reyhaneh was a journalist and is in prison for her journalism.”

"If no journalists jailed in Iran, why did you promise their release?" - Journalist Fereshteh Ghazi

Tabatabaee was in fact imprisoned during Rouhani's presidency, but regardless many had still looked to him for glimmers of hope when it came to freedom of expression. What makes Rouhani's claim more disappointing is the fact that 25 of the 73 Iranian journalists currently in prison were actually arrested in Rouhani's first year as president.

IranWire has also made a series to document the journalistic prisoners of conscience, which you can find here. These comments have led to parallels being drawn between Rouhani's presidency and his predecessor's, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During his reign, Ahmadinejad had shocked the world by claiming that there were no gays in Iran, a claim that was obviously superfluous and false; Rouhani's comment is singing to the same tune and using the same script template.

When questioned about the status of journalist Jason Rezaian and his wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi -- during a forum sponsored by the New America Foundation in New York -- a similarly vague response was given.

He did not reveal the charges under which the journalists were being held or whether he would help speed up their legal proceedings. The answer was just curt, without even mentioning any names: “The individual who you name is being investigated. He is in detention being investigated. During this time a multitude of things can change … At a time when a file, a case, is being built and the prosecutor is working hard to send that case file to the appropriate court,” continuing that it would be inappropriate to discuss these charges. Their charges will apparently be announced when their files have been referred to the court. However, it could be interpreted that Rouhani did in a way indicate that he would weigh in on the case. The Washington Post notes that Rouhani had highlighted the fact that the executive branch of the government, that he is the head of, is able to inquire about the detention of certain persons.

In the same forum the President also denied knowledge of the “Happy Dancers” who were arrested for the video they produced of themselves dancing to Pharrell William's 'Happy' song. Rouhani responded, “I'm not certain what this thing you're referring to was, how many people danced.”

The group that Rouhani has no recollection of have been sentenced to “91 lashes and six months in jail” for participating in and making the video, although their sentence has been suspended for “three years contingent on good behaviour”. Although denying knowledge of the case, Rouhani was seen as indirectly referring to the case, when news broke out about their arrest, by tweeting: “#Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviors caused by joy.” Again his denial of knowledge of the case is a worrying step backwards for the promises he had said he would deliver on.

During the same time, the free expression rights of those residing in Iran took many hard and devastating blows. News of Mohsen Amiraslani's execution on 24 September still makes some people tremble. The Guardian's current report on the hanging highlights the lack of proper judicial proceedings and the arbitrary nature of Amiraslani's conviction. Similar dismay with the Iranian political and legal system, which limits access to journalists, is seen with the unruly death sentence of Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, who was arrested in 2007 for the killing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi -- a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence – even though it was in self-defence after he had sexually abused her. (Her sentence was, however, postponed for 10 days on Tuesday after overwhelming online pressure.)

In the same week as Amiraslani's execution, 11 individuals were arrested for sending “insulting SMS text messages” about Ayatollah Khomeini in the southern province of Shiraz. Al-Arabia quotes the provincial Revolutionary Guards Chief General Esmail Mohebipour as saying that the arrests came “after monitoring social network applications on mobile applications like WhatsApp, Viber, Line and Tango,” he further goes on to state: "They recognized the error of their ways," in Haft e-Sobh daily.

This dismay is not lost on the political prisoners from minority religious groups. On 28 September around 1,000 of Iran's Gonabadi dervishes went on to protest outside the Ministry of Justice building in Tehran for the “poor treatment of dervish political prisoners and a “news boycott” by domestic media.” This was subsequent to a protest on 21 September which ended with many protestors being attacked by security officials. Reports came out that on 1 October, hundreds of Gonabadi dervishes were arrested as they made their way to protest the hostility they were met with on 21 September.

There has been increasing pressure from the authorities on dervishes over the last years leading to their arrests in many prominent cities of Iran. Farhad Nouri, an administrator of Majzooban Nour (which publishes news about Gonabadi dervishes), was quoted as saying, “the pressure on dervishes is such that they are all living in a big prison. This is why they decided to spontaneously and peacefully migrate to Evin”. This relates to a campaign, joined by over 2,000 dervishes, which is aptly titled “Migration to Evin Prison”, demanding the rights of dervishes to be respected or have all dervishes arrested. One wonders if, when asked, Rouhani will deny the existence of any peril for them too?

The Rouhani administration engaged in extensive internet surveillance and interference throughout the year, announcing in January that more than 130 Facebook pages had been closed and more than 30 internet users detained in connection with their online activity.

What is the correlation between the online and offline behaviour of Iranian citizens and the likelihood of their arrest in Iran today? Answering this question is the main focus of this new ARTICLE 19 report.

Free Expression & the Law:

More from Free Expression & the Law

In its report, the Center examines Bahrain's laws and legislation restricting the freedom of press work and shows the extent of its non-conformity with the international treaties, covenants and agreements. The report also documents violations of media workers since the popular protests beginning in 2011.

Laws passed since Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in May 2012 have dramatically strengthened the Russian authorities’ control over the flow of information online and offline. Much of this crackdown has been fuelled by Russia’s foreign policy, in particular its role in the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine and its armed intervention in Syria.

The report is based on the study of Bahraini laws and legislation related to the prosecution of civilians in military courts and shows the compatibility of Bahraini laws with the International Bill and international laws.

Civil society leaders in Egypt are urging the U.S. government to continue to condition and withhold military aid to Egypt until the Egyptian government makes meaningful reforms to its human rights practices.

BCHR analyses how the Bahraini judiciary uses the language of 'anti-terrorism' law to justify suppressing dissent. They also do a comparative study of the relevant local and international anti-terror legislation, and the extent to which Bahrain is in line with international law, international conventions and human rights treaties.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accuses the Eritrean government of a complete denial of reality in its first-ever report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and announces that it has submitted an alternative "shadow report" with a much darker assessment of the state of press freedom in Eritrea.

The general trend over the past 10 years has been bleak, with an overall negative trajectory for press freedom. The major turning point was the election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012 and President of China in 2013.

In 2014, Cameroon enacted a broad anti-terror law as part of its effort to counter the extremist group Boko Haram, but authorities are using it to arrest and threaten local journalists who report on the militants or unrest in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Since 2013, law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh have illegally detained scores of opposition activists and held them in secret without producing them before courts, as the law requires. In most cases, those arrested remain in custody for weeks or months before being formally arrested or released. Others however are killed in so-called armed exchanges, and many remain “disappeared.”

This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislation with international standards and best practices in the field of defamation law and freedom of expression.

READ AND DOWNLOADThis study analyses current trends in civil defamation and privacy cases in Hungary involving the media and summarises key challenges for freedom of the press and expression. Written by Hungarian media lawyer Bea Bodrogi, the study examined 250 court decisions related to civil protection of 'personality rights', an area in Hungarian law that includes defamation, privacy and personal image.

Freedom Forum has issued a review of Nepal's National Mass Communications Policy 2016. Among others, FF says the policy fails to articulate constitutional provisions relating to freedom of expression and mass communication. The policy, they said, also seems to promote centralided regulation, instead of self-regulation.

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 2016 maintained its control over all public affairs and punished those who challenged its monopoly on power. Authorities restricted basic rights, including freedom of speech, opinion, association, and assembly. All religious groups had to register with the government and operate under surveillance. Bloggers and activists faced daily police harassment and intimidation, and were subject to arbitrary house arrest, restricted movement, and physical assaults.

Malaysia's human rights situation continued to deteriorate in 2016, with human rights defenders, activists, political opposition figures, and journalists facing harassment and politically motivated prosecution. Those criticising the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak or commenting on the government's handling of the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal have been particular targets.

Authorities continue to use sedition and criminal defamation laws to prosecute citizens who criticise government officials or oppose state policies. In a blow to free speech, the government in 2016 argued before the Supreme Court in favour of retaining criminal penalties for defamation. The court upheld the law.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.

Get more stories like this

Sign up for our newsletters and get the most important free expression news delivered to your inbox.